


Styx & Stones

by AuroraRose2081



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Greek, Post-Maleficent (2014), References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29712294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraRose2081/pseuds/AuroraRose2081
Summary: Audrey dies after her time with the Scepter. She’s been gone for six months, and Mal is struggling with the guilt of her death. Until of course Audrey manages to crawl from the Underworld.With the balances between life and death now tipped, and a new darkness on the rise to conquer the magical world and with its sights on Olympus and beyond, can Audrey and Mal put aside what they’ve always known to save those they love?[Post D3]
Relationships: Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), Mal & Audrey Rose (Disney)
Kudos: 6





	Styx & Stones

She’s dead. Audrey knows she’s dead because she’s drowning. She’s drowning, sinking, writhing around desperately as ghostly hands tear at her clothes and skin, causing her whole being to prickle with chill. She’s dead. Dead, dead, very dead. It’s her own fault that she’s here, the screams of the unwilling echoing in her ears. Yet something feels wrong about this descent. Her heart is still beating, and her blood is still flowing. 

Death was a stillness, a painless aching which eventually led into an endless well of souls. Audrey assumed that for her misdeeds she would surpass this stage and skip right into the torture bit. But the feeling of drowning continued on forever, her being somehow caught between the living and the dead. It was like this for what felt like years, just her drowning, flailing around awkwardly as spirits passed her by into the underworld. 

Until a hand grabbed her. 

She was fished out of the River Styx like a trout on a line. Coughing and sputtering for breath, her palms made two hollow clunks against the wooden boat’s floor. Rolling onto her back and staring up, she was not dead anymore. She was very much alive — her heart still ba-dumping a familiar rhythm in her chest. What that meant for her, Audrey couldn’t really say. 

She screamed unexpectedly when a hollow face was suddenly thrust into her personal bubble. It had no features, merely pale grey skin pulled over a skull with two dark eye holes. His spindly hands clasped onto a wooden post, which he used to no doubt guide the ferry leading deeper into the underworld. He did not speak, merely stared at her there in his boat. And then, slowly, he extended his hand. 

He was asking for something? 

Yes! Of course he was — this was Kharon, the ferryman of the dead. Feeling herself for anything resembling a coin, Audrey felt desperation welling in her gut. She really didn’t want to get thrown back into the River of the damned for not paying her dues. Stopping her quick motions of checking her clothing as the skeletal figure got closer, Kharon grabbed her face with his fingers. Leaning in, he forced her lips apart and removed something. From under her tongue came a golden coin, perfectly polished and gleaming in the light. 

So that settled it then. She had indeed been dead, and a coin had been placed in her mouth for the trip. So then why was she still breathing? The skeleton man dipped his pole into the water, swinging the ferry around expertly. Was he going to take her deeper into the realm of Hades? Or, perhaps, she was merely being ferried elsewhere to serve her eternal sentence?

As there were no benches in the boat to sit upon, Audrey remained on the floor, pulling her knees to her chest to wait. She wasn’t sure what would become of her. She deserved where she had been headed — an eternal life of torture surrounded by her own misdeeds. But then, Audrey couldn’t imagine Kharon pulling her out if she was supposed to be there. After all the ferryman wasn’t known to be kind or merciful. 

Mal probably knew more about these things then Audrey did, she was always a bit of a history buff. Ben too, though he was more into the recent medieval histories. Glancing up as the boat jostled a bit, Kharon waved a skeletal hand at her. Still no words, but Audrey didn’t want to annoy the tortured thing any longer by lingering. So she left what little safety she had, falling onto a shore of perfectly smooth black pebbles. 

Before her was a spiraling staircase, curling up, up, up. And at the very top, Audrey could make out a speck of light. Rising to her feet on the warm shore, Kharon had already pushed off, continuing his way down the River Styx and leaving her there.

‘Not a very charming fellow.’ Audrey thought as she turned back to the stairs. It was a long way up, especially in bare feet and after drowning for who knows how long. But she wobbled forward anyway. 

Getting out of this terrible place was her main priority now. Thinking about the terms and conditions surrounding her own demise made her head hurt. All she needed to know was that this situation was her own fault, and Audrey wasn’t sure why or how she had gotten caught in the place between two worlds. 

The stairs seemed as endless as the River as the girl began to ascend. They weren’t actually endless, as the speck of light near the top was growing larger with each stone step. But it certainly felt like eternities. She was feeling more dead then alive by the time she had hauled herself up onto the thousandth landing. Her body was still wet, and now her skin was hot and sticky with sweat. Audrey felt like all of her muscles had been rolled out and beat down.

Taking a few deep breaths, Audrey didn’t bother getting back to her feet as she crawled out of the Underworld on her hands and knees. The light from the doorway nearly blinded her, and had Audrey not closed her eyes as she passed through, it may have done just that. Tumbling onto her front, it smelled like dirt and grasses. Her body, which had felt solid but light in the Underworld, was now heavy like steel. Her limbs were weights, her poor body screaming in agony as she sat up. 

Splitting one eye open, then the other, Audrey had to squint for a good ten seconds before her irises got used to the light. She sat in the dirt and grass, heaving from her journey as though she had sprinted instead of crawled to freedom. Everything still sounded far away, but her hearing was gradually clearing up as the rustle of a breeze and birdsong filtered through her mind. Lifting her hands to rub at her eyes like a small child, Audrey pressed the heels of her palms against the rise of her skull. 

Gods everything hurt; she didn’t even know everything could hurt but it did. Unfolding her legs out from under her, Audrey felt a bit like a newborn fawn finding its footing. Her knees were weak, unsteady like a pair of stilts. How she had managed to haul her ass up an eternity of stairs was a mystery. She felt like a sack, dragging the rest of herself along while her mind fumbled to catch up. 

One foot, then the other...right back onto her stomach. Pain rocketed through her bones, causing Audrey to wince. She forgot what physical pain felt like. The River Styx hadn’t been pleasant on the mind, but to her body it was bliss. The earth under her fingers felt way too solid; coarse and cruel and cold and hot all at the same time. Maybe she should have tried convincing Kharon to just hold her under till she was dislodged and on her way? 

Huffing in frustration, Audrey planted both fists and forced her torso up. The action made her shoulders burn, but the girl continued moving forward till her toes were curled in the soft, sun kissed weeds. Finally standing solidly on both heels, Audrey allowed herself to really breathe for the first time since emerging. The air here was cool and crisp in her throat, the sky a brilliant cerulean blue. The grasses where she stood were long and golden, reflecting the suns rays as it filtered down onto her clammy white skin. In the distance, she could see the expansive navy line that was the Auradonian Sea. 

Somewhere on that horizon was her old home. 

Not knowing anywhere else to go, Audrey didn’t even look back at where she had came from. She remembered the story of Orpheus and Eurydice; and wasn’t chancing being dragged back to hell simply by turning around. So she stumbled forward drunkenly through the empty field, eyes pinned forward. If she reached Auradon, maybe someone could tell her what was going on. 

Maybe someone could tell her how long she’d been dead.


End file.
